Russian Search Engines Remove Links to Blocked Media Outlets

Russian search engines have stopped displaying links to websites of media outlets that have been blocked in the country. The independent media outlet Meduza was the first to notice that Yandex had removed links to its website from search results for users in Russia, although links to Meduza’s social media pages remained available.

According to Yandex’s press service, “Links disappear from Yandex’s search results if they have been added to Roskomnadzor’s registry of banned sites. Under Russian law, search engines are required to exclude links to sites and their mirrors as soon as Roskomnadzor adds them to the registry. Synchronization with the registry happens automatically. Roskomnadzor announced the addition of Meduza to the registry on March 4.”

Yandex’s search results also no longer display links to other media outlets blocked in Russia, including Mediazona, Current Time, Holod, and Pskovskaya Guberniya.

In addition, the search engine now displays a message stating that “some links are missing from search results due to requirements of Russian law.” If users click for more details, the service explains that its actions are dictated by Federal Law 276-FZ, which prohibits providing links to banned websites.

The organization Roskomsvoboda has confirmed that this also affects outlets such as The Insider and Deutsche Welle, although some of their social media pages remain accessible. Other Russian search engines, including Mail.ru and Rambler, have also removed links to blocked media websites from their search results.

The Telegram channel “Mestami” commented, “It seems it’s time to switch to Google’s search engine.”

Since February 24, Roskomnadzor has blocked numerous media outlets. According to our calculations, since the start of the “special operation,” the number of internet resources blocked in Russia has already exceeded 2,300.

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